The Kodiak Island Borough School District is fully staffed with teachers this school year. Administrators credit the district’s temporary visa program—and a pivot many districts are making to help their international hires obtain permanent resident status – for keeping turnover low.
KIBSD acting superintendent Damon Hargraves said that in a normal year, the district scrambles all summer to hire new teachers. But not this year.
“We are all hired up this year with our teaching staff, except for just one case where we have a long term sub in," he said. "That's kind of unheard of.”
Hargraves said he can’t remember a year since he started 15 years ago that this has happened. He said a big reason Kodiak’s schools were able to retain so many teachers this year is the district’s visa program. Since 2022, the district has been actively recruiting teachers from the Philippines. They’re bringing them in on H-1B visas, which let them live and work in the country for up to six years. And the district is paying for the legal fees associated with the visa application.
Right now, the school district employs 26 international teachers on H-1B visas across every school in the district. That’s about one out of every six teachers. In the face of hiring difficulties and funding uncertainty from the state, Hargraves said these teachers have provided much-needed stability.
“One of the benefits that's become clearly evident is that our visa workers are here for the long run," Hargraves said. "They're investing in our school district and our community, and they're coming back year after year after year.”
Last year, KIBSD took its international efforts one step further by agreeing to sponsor the legal fees associated with getting permanent resident status – also known as a green card – for the six international teachers with the longest tenure. Then last fall, the Trump administration hiked the application fee for an H-1B visa to $100,000. It effectively shut the door on new recruits from overseas.
Two different judges have since temporarily shot down the Trump administration’s fee hike, but Hargraves said the benefits of supporting the green card program still outweigh the drawbacks.
In response to the visa fee hike, the Board of Education refocused on retaining the 20 other international teachers they’d already recruited on temporary H-1B visas. The board decided this May to set aside $100,000 to pay for their green card legal fees, on the condition they remain with the district for at least five years after getting their green card.
Jennifer Schmitz, the director of the Alaska Educator Retention and Recruitment Center, a division of the Alaska Council of School Administrators, said this lines up with a larger trend.
“There's some larger districts that are over 50% international teachers that have started the process and are looking at green cards for all their teachers," she said. "So it's happening around the state and will continue to happen.”
Schmitz said that replacing a teacher means advertising, recruiting, checking backgrounds, onboarding – and flying in long-term substitutes to cover open spots. Hiring one teacher in Alaska can cost a school district $25,000 or more, she said.
“But I think the greater cost is not necessarily financial," Schmitz said. "Every time a teacher leaves, students have to start over again with somebody new. Consistency allows teachers to understand students and families and culture, and it helps build stable schools.”
Educator turnover rates in Alaska are some of the highest in the country, and have gone up statewide over the past several years.
Serjoe Gutierrez is the first teacher the Kodiak Island Borough School District hired as part of its H-1B visa program back in 2022. He and the other five original teachers are in the green card process now. He said that even with the district’s help, it isn’t easy. Obtaining a green card takes a lot of paperwork, legal processes, and waiting for decisions from the government. Gutierrez said he started the process in 2025, and that he probably won’t have it completed until 2028.
“Knock on wood, right?" he said. "So that's almost like two years, three years?”
And at any point, Gutierrez could still lose his job by being laid off, performing poorly, or, in certain situations, because a qualified domestic teacher is available to take the job. All the while, he and the other international teachers have to keep renewing their visas.
“It's been a crazy five years for me, since it's always waiting and waiting, and just hoping that I will not be cut, and my visa will be renewed," he said.
KIBSD's school board has also set aside another $100,000 for this school year to pay for green card fees, existing H-1B visa renewals and related paperwork. According to documents that Hargraves presented at the Board of Education meeting on Sept. 21, the district spent almost all of the money it budgeted for this past fiscal year, leaving about $10,000 left over.
The move has ruffled some feathers in the Kodiak community. The school board cut around $2.5 million worth of staff for this school year, and another potential school closure is looming for next school year, so some people are upset at the idea of setting aside any money for international teachers. Some teachers previously told KMXT that they had faced racism and backlash.
Hargraves said that the visa program is the only way that they’ve been able to keep classrooms staffed up. He knows firsthand from earlier in his career.
“As principal of Peterson Elementary, I went for six months without having a single qualified applicant for a position," Hargraves said. "Finding the teachers under the visa program has helped make ends meet.”
The district is still dedicating money and time to developing and recruiting Alaskan teachers. Hargraves said the district has 16 people in Kodiak this year participating in a new apprenticeship program. They are working as school aides while taking classes for free toward a degree and earning a teaching certificate.
“I see this as another layer of support to help Alaska find teachers, and this is a mechanism that's particularly exciting because it's supporting people in our own communities getting those teaching credentials," Hargraves said.
But until the district has more financial stability and a steady flow of local teachers, Hargraves said they’ll continue to support international teachers in getting their green cards.
